Douadi Khelifi

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Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is one of the serious wheat diseases. FC11 is one strain among 34 isolates obtained in a previous study, and identified as Fusarium culmorum strain highly pathogenic. FC11 was assigned the accession number MW151664 by NCBI GenBank. Two resistance/sensitivity tests were conducted on 9 cultivars (cv) of bread wheat. The In vitro test in the oven with the parameters; percentage of germination inhibition (%GI), to determine the tolerance of seedlings germination, and the Area Under the Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) to test the tolerance to the initial infection of germinated coleoptiles. In in-vivo test in the growth chamber, the disease severity (DS) parameter used to test the cultivars ability to tolerate FCR induced by F. culmorum. The results showed that all cultivars were susceptible to FC11 with a significant decrease in germination and coleoptile emergence rate with GI% and AUDPC values reached up to 68.35, and 68.98% for cv. Boumerzoug and Hidhab, respectively. The cv. Bordj Mehis and Ain Abid showed significant susceptibility to F. culmorum, where length of the vegetative system and fresh weight (RCL% and RCW%) were negatively affected up to 28.66 and 56.66%, respectively. In this work, the cv. Akhamokh showed an interesting level of FCR tolerance among other cultivars tested.

In this study, FCR-symptomatic samples from the north-east of Algeria were collected. Macroscopic data and microscopic characteristics were used to identify the 23 isolates, which were then confirmed by molecular identification. NCBI GenBank assigned the accession number MW358286 to isolate FC14, which was identified as Fusarium cerealis. Under controlled conditions, two pathogenicity tests were performed on nine bread wheat cultivars (cv). The first one is an in vitro test in the growth chamber. The second one, in vivo test in the greenhouse. The results revealed that all cultivars were susceptible to FC14, and that F. cerealis reduced germination and coleoptile emergence rates significantly, with GI% and AUDPC values of 38.09% and 49.58% for cv. Boumerzoug, respectively. With cv. Bordj Mehis, F. cerealis decreased the RCL% and RCW% by 50.71% and 60.70%, respectively. The presence of F. cerealis species as an agent causing FCR was identified for the first time in Algeria.

Background. The peanut is one of the most important oil crops suitable for cultivation in the tropical areas of the world. Despite its agronomic importance, few studies have been carried out to assess the morphogenetic diversity of Arachis hypogaea L., especially in East African countries. The major interest of this morphologic study lies in the potential of this species to provide useful genes for the improvement of cultivated peanuts. To date, no study has been performed in Algeria to characterize local peanut varieties.Materials and methods. Thirty peanut accessions were collected from four principal areas of peanut production in Algeria. Genetic characterization using 15 agronomic characters and 25 morphological descriptors showed a high level of diversity among accessions. Principal Component Analysis and the Hierarchical Ascendant Classification were made to clarify the genetic relationship between peanut accessions.Results and discussion. Results showed that leaflet size (length and width), seed shape and size, oil content, and branching pattern were the principal characters to discriminate the screened A. hypogaea accessions. In addition to that, the weights of 10 pods and 100 seeds were the most variable traits and presented a CV of 42.53% and 40.12%, respectively. On the other hand, total storage proteins extracted were separated using SDS-PAGE and revealed thirty bands that were used to generate a matrix and make a cluster analysis using the UPGMA method, exhibiting different storage proteins compositions. Moreover , the phenotypic diversity observed agrees with the storage protein profile diversity, while the accessions grouped in similar clusters belong to the two subspecies of A. hypogaea. The results of the current study show that morphological traits and seed storage proteins can be useful for exploring the diversity among A. hypogaea accessions.